ARPA-E today announced $16 million in funding for eight projects as part of the Innovative Natural-gas Technologies for Efficiency Gain in Reliable and Affordable Thermochemical Electricity-generation (INTEGRATE) program.

INTEGRATE projects will develop advanced natural gas fueled, distributed electric generation systems with conversion efficiencies of more than 70%—double the delivered efficiency of average utility-scale, fossil-fueled plants. The INTEGRATE program seeks to achieve this unprecedented efficiency level at an attractive cost by developing fuel cell and engine hybrid system concepts and enabling technologies. These systems could ultimately be used by both commercial and industrial end users—including hospitals, hotels, office buildings, factories, and others.

Two-thirds of the primary energy used to generate the electricity fed into today’s grid is derived from fossil fuels (e.g. coal or natural gas) at an average net-delivered (i.e. inclusive of transmission losses) efficiency of 34%. INTEGRATE project teams seek to build highly flexible, efficient, distributed energy solutions, which could dramatically increase grid efficiency, reduce cost, and add resilience.

Further details on the INTEGRATE program can be found HERE and details on the 8 projects can be found HERE.